Steve Russell- 1961-1962 The 1960’s gave way to new advances, there was the rise of satellites, plans on placing a man on the moon and although not considered the first game invented, but, considered the first for entertainment, Space War was born. Fueled by the fascination with space, in 1961, a young computer programmer, name Steve “Slug” Russell at the age of 25 along with a group of engineering students at MIT conceived the idea of Space War after being introduced to the Institute’s new mainframe computer, the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor). Steven Russell dubbed the name “Slug” because of his slow to take action mentality and his Club members, Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen successfully developed the space game on the PDP-1. The increased speed and large round display provided an advantage to anything that was available during that time.
The 1960’s gave way to new advances, there was the rise of satellites, plans on placing a man on the moon and although not considered the first game invented, but, considered the first for entertainment, Space War was born. Fueled by the fascination with space, in 1961, a young computer programmer, name Steve “Slug” Russell at the age of 25 along with a group of engineering students at MIT conceived the idea of Space War after being introduced to the Institute’s new mainframe computer, the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor). Steven Russell dubbed the name “Slug” because of his slow to take action mentality and his Club members, Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen successfully developed the space game on the PDP-1. The increased speed and large round display provided an advantage to anything that was available during that time.